The Economics and Management of Water and Drainage in Agriculture

ISBN-13: 9781461368014 / Angielski / Miękka / 2012 / 946 str.

Ariel Dinar; David Zilberman

Opis

Jan van Schilfgaarde, USDA Agricultural Research Service and National Research Council Committee on Irrigation-Induced Water Quality Problems In 1982, a startling discovery was made. Many waterbirds in Kesterson National Wildlife Refuge were dying or suffering reproductive failure. Located in the San Joaquin Valley (Valley) of California, the Kesterson Reservoir (Kesterson) was used to store agricultural drainage water and it was soon determined that the probable cause of the damage to wildlife was high concen trations of selenium, derived from the water and water organisms in the reservoir. This discovery drastically changed numerous aspects of water management in California, and especially affected irrigated agriculture. In fact, the repercussions spilled over to much of the Western United States. For a century, water development for irrigation has been a religiously pursued means for economic development of the West. The primary objective of the Reclamation Act of 1902 was, purportedly, the development ofirrigation water to support family farms which, in turn, would enhance the regional economy (Worster, 1985)."

Spis treści

One: Background and Setting.- 1 Introduction and Overview.- 2 Irrigation, Drainage, and Agricultural Development in the San Joaquin Valley.- 3 Overview of Sources, Distribution, and Mobility of Selenium in the San Joaquin Valley, California.- Two: Engineering, Physical, and Biological Approaches to Drainage Problems.- 4 Hydrologic Aspects of Saline Water Table Management in Regional Shallow Aquifers.- 5 Ground-water Pumping for Water Table Management and Drainage Control in the Western San Joaquin Valley.- 6 Reuse of Agricultural Drainage Water to Maximize the Beneficial Use of Multiple Water Supplies for Irrigation.- 7 Land Retirement as a Strategy for Long-term Management of Agricultural Drainage and Related Problems.- 8 San Joaquin Salt Balance: Future Prospects and Possible Solutions.- 9 Removal of Selenium from Agricultural Drainage Water through Soil Microbial Transformations.- 10 A Conceptual Planning Process for Management of Subsurface Drainage.- Three: Economics of Farm Level Irrigation and Drainage.- 11 Crop-Water Production Functions and the Problems of Drainage and Salinity.- 12 Effects of Input Quality and Environmental Conditions on Selection of Irrigation Technologies.- 13 Estimation of Production Systems with Emphasis on Water Productivity.- 14 Increasing Block-rate Prices for Irrigation Water Motivate Drain Water Reduction.- 15 Irrigation Technology Adoption Decisions: Empirical Evidence.- Four: Environmental and Public Health Impacts of Drainage.- 16 Assessing Health Risks in the Presence of Variable Exposure and Uncertain Biological Effects.- 17 Consideration of the Public Health Impacts of Agricultural Drainage Water Contamination.- 18 Contaminants in Drainage Water and Avian Risk Thresholds.- 19 Preliminary Assessment of the Effects of Selenium in Agricultural Drainage on Fish in the San Joaquin Valley.- Five: Valuing Non-Agricultural Benefits from Water Use.- 20 Measuring the Benefits of Freshwater Quality Changes: Techniques and Empirical Findings.- 21 Willingness to Pay to Protect Wetlands and Reduce Wildlife Contamination from Agricultural Drainage.- 22 Valuing Environmental Goods: A Critical Appraisal of the State of the Art.- 23 Economic Value of Wildlife Resources in the San Joaquin Valley: Hunting and Viewing Values.- Six: Regional Economic Analysis.- 24 A Regional Mathematical Programming Model to Assess Drainage Control Policies.- 25 The Use of Computable General Equilibrium Models to Assess Water Policies.- 26 Analyses of Irrigation and Drainage Problems: Input-Output and Econometric Models.- 27 Creating Economic Solutions to the Environmental Problems of Irrigation and Drainage.- 28 Impacts of San Joaquin Valley Drainage-Related Policies on State and National Agricultural Production.- 29 Cropland Allocation Decisions: The Role of Agricultural Commodity Programs and the Reclamation Program.- Seven: Dynamic Aspects of Irrigation and Drainage Management.- 30 Optimal Intertemporal Irrigation Management Under Saline, Limited Drainage Conditions.- 31 Managing Drainage Problems in a Conjunctive Ground and Surface Water System.- 32 Government Policies to Improve Intertemporal Allocation of Water Use in Regions with Drainage Problems.- 33 Dynamic Considerations in the Design of Drainage Canals.- 34 Common Property Aspects of Ground-Water Use and Drainage Generation.- Eight: Uncertainty, Enforcement, and Political Economy of Water Systems.- 35 Determination of Regional Environmental Policy Under Uncertainty: Theory and Case Studies.- 36 Economic Aspects of Enforcing Agricultural Water Policy.- 37 Organizational Failure and the Political Economy of Water Resources Management.- 38 Water Market Reforms for Water Resource Problems: Invisible Hands or Domination in Disguise?.- Nine: Institutions, Regulations, and Legal Aspects of Water and Drainage Problems.- 39 Alternative Institutional Arrangements for Controlling Drainage Pollution.- 40 Economic Incentives and Agricultural Drainage Problems: The Role of Water Transfers.- 41 Water Quality and the Economic Efficiency of Appropriative Water Rights.- 42 Institutional and Legal Dimensions of Drainage Management.- 43 Legal Issues Raised by Alternative Proposed Solutions to Kesterson Water Quality Problems.- Ten: Outlook and Discussion.- 44 Management of the San Joaquin Valley Drainage Program: The Dichotomy Between Practice and Theory.- 45 Future Research on Salinity and Drainage.- 46 Irrigation Technology, Institutional Innovation, and Sustainable Agriculture.- 47 Is the Drainage Problem in Agriculture Mainstream Resource Economics?.- 48 Summary of Findings and Conclusions.